Perhaps what was most striking in Chelsea’s 4-4 draw with Manchester City on Sunday was how one team played entirely to type, and one team didn’t. That’s a situation that should give hope not only to Chelsea but to the rest of the league: perhaps this iteration of City is not quite so relentless and remorseless as had been thought. They go into the international break only a point clear of Arsenal and Liverpool, whom they face in the first game back.
Chelsea are unpredictable, occasionally brilliant, skittish and chaotic, and have in Cole Palmer a player who seems as yet not to have been ground down by the game, who regards structures and expectations and pressure with an anarchic insolence. A vital injury‑time penalty against the club he left in August for a player who says he doesn’t really practise penalties? No problem, the ball dispatched calmly into the top corner.
